contemporary issues in christianity and science cath 322 professor william sweet fall 2015

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN

CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE

CATH 322

PROFESSOR WILLIAM SWEET

FALL 2015

INTRODUCTION

• What is ‘religion’?

• What is Christianity?

• How is Catholicism distinct?

• What is science?

• What is distinctive about science (goals, tasks, methods)?

• The role of science in culture

WHAT IS RELIGION?

•

WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?

HOW IS CATHOLICISM DISTINCT?

• Historically

• A central authority (though 23 different ‘rites’)

• Some doctrinal matters

• Some practices

• Relation of scripture and tradition

• ‘Magisterium’

MAGISTERIUM

Source Level of Magisterium Nature of what is taught Required Response

Pope (in virtue of his position as pastor and teacher of all) / ex cathedra

Extraordinary (i.e., using extraordinary means to declare) and universal

Infallible on matters of faith and morals

full assent of faith, to be firmly accepted and held

Bishops, in union with the Pope, defining doctrine at General / Ecumenical councils

Extraordinary (and universal)



Bishops, in unison, in union with the Pope, proposing definitively, although dispersed

Ordinary (i.e., using ordinary means such as encyclicals, letters), and universal



MAGISTERIUM

Pope Ordinary Authoritative but not “definitive” or infallible

Religious submission of intellect and will

Bishops in union with the Pope Ordinary Authoritative but not

“definitive” or infallibleReligious submission of intellect and will

Roman Curia (e.g., Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith)

Ordinary Authoritative but not “definitive” or infallible

Religious submission of intellect and will

Bishops

“magisterium cathedrae pastoralis” - "magisterium of the pastoral chair"

With authority, but not “definitive” or infallible

Theologians

magisterium cathedrae magistralis / "magisterium of the teaching chair"

role is to explain church teaching / assist bishops

Neither authoritative nor infallible legitimate disagreement

MAGISTERIUM

Priests No magisterial authority

Sensus fidei = the supernatural instinct for the faith, so far as the word of God resides in the whole church / the baptized faithful (Lumen Gentium 12; Dei Verbum 8)

Private revelations No magisterial authority

THEOLOGY, DOGMA, AND SCRIPTURE

What is ‘dogma’?

•-- “a truth appertaining to faith or morals, revealed by God, transmitted from the Apostles in the Scriptures or by tradition, and proposed by the Church for the acceptance of the faithful.” = Catholic Encyclopedia

Other important truths

•truths “proxima fidei”

•truths “theologice certa”

•“sententia communis”

•“Conclusiones theologicae”

•Philosophical truths

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SCRIPTURE?

• Purpose in general

• What is ‘scripture’ (in Christianity)?

• Finding out the meaning of scripture• Different kinds of texts

• The role of literary devices,.method and metaphor

• Approaches to texts (Ignatius Loyola, Lonergan)

• What human beings bring to a text

Example of Chiasmus in the Noah / Flood Story A Noah (6:10a)__B Shem, Ham, and Japheth (10b)___C Ark to be built (14-16)____D Flood announced (17)_____E Covenant with Noah (18-20)______F Food in the ark (21)_______G Command to enter the ark (7:1-3)________H 7 days waiting for flood (4-5)_________I 7 days waiting for flood (7-10)__________J Entry to ark (11-15)___________K YHWH shuts Noah in (16)____________L 40 days flood (17a)_____________M Waters increase (17b-18)______________N Mountains covered (19-20)_______________O 150 days water prevail (21-24)

________________P GOD REMEMBERS NOAH (8:1)

_______________O’ 150 days waters abate (3)______________N’ Mountain tops visible (4-5)_____________M’ Waters abate (5)____________L’ 40 days (end of) (6a)___________K’ Noah opens window of ark (6b)__________J’ Raven and dove leave ark (7-9)_________I’ 7 days waiting for waters to subside (10-11)________H’ 7 days waiting for waters to subside (12-13)_______G’ Command to leave ark (15-17 [22])______F’ Food outside ark (9:1-4)_____E’ Covenant with all flesh (8-10)____D’ No flood in the future (11-17)___C’ Ark (18a)__B’ Shem, Ham and Japheth (18b)A’ Noah (19)

METAPHOR

• Luke 13:34 (see also Matthew 23:37 ) Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

• [John 10:11] Jesus said, ‘I am the Good Shepherd’

• John 6:47-51 “I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever….”

• John 10:9 “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.”

DIFFERENT HISTORIES OR DIFFERENT STORIES?

Two Genesis stories, and the possible influence of two ‘authors/editors’

•Genesis 1:1-2:3

•Genesis 2:4-3:24

SUMMARY

When we talk about Christianity, we need to be precide

•What people believe?

•Teachings / dogmas?

•Scripture• Literally (including literary devices)

• Metaphorically

• The purpose of a text?

WHAT IS SCIENCE?

• Definitions

• Science as any systematic, rigorous, rationally-pursued investigation

• Who is a scientist?

• ‘Science’ today

• Goals, tasks, and methods of ‘science’ today

• Subject matter

• Method

• World view

WHAT IS SCIENCE?

• Scientific method

• Usually causal

• Usually empirical (observation and experimental)

• Falsifiable (testable) Popper, replicability

• Objective ( but observer effect / quantum theory)

• Probabilistic v demonstrative

WHAT IS SCIENCE?

• World view

• Materialist / naturalist

• Nature as an object

• Value rooted in human ends

• Claims to be disengaged /impartial

• Instrumentalist model of reasoning

WHAT IS TO BE LEARNED FROM THIS?

• What counts as science?• Astrology, alchemy, phrenology, necromancy

• One method or many?

• Science and culture• Science as a part of culture

• Science as shaping culture (UNESCO / evolutionary humanism)

• universalistic

• Is science impartial, value neutral, autonomous? (Tuskagee case)

AN AMBIGUOUS HISTORY

Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 225 CE)

•“After Jesus Christ, we have no need for curiosity; nor do we need inquiry after the Gospel. When we believe, we desire to believe nothing more. For we believe this before all else: that there is nothing else that we ought to believe.” De praescriptione haereticorum ("On the Rule of the Heretics”). Ch 7 –

Augustine (354–430 C.E.)

•"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. It is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.” (The Literal meaning of Genesis (De Genesi ad litteram), 401 AD)


Still, human beings seek to know

Augustine: crede, ut intelligas, "believe so that you may understand" (Tract. Ev. Jo., 29.6)

Anselm (1033–1109)

• faith seeking understanding / Fides quaerens intellectum

• Credo ut intellegam - I Believe That I Might Understand

Benedict XVI

• The path of theology is indicated by the saying, "Credo ut intelligam": I accept what is given in advance, in order to find, starting from this and in this, the path to the right way of living, to the right way of understanding myself


Charlemagne (742 –814) – 1st Holy Roman Emperor

•edicts of 787 and 789

•"Let every monastery and every abbey have its school, in which boys may be taught the Psalms, the system of musical notation, singing, arithmetic and grammar“ / Trivium and Quadrivium

Education in the Middle Ages

•seeking to understand scripture, but also nature (in which God’s handiwork is revealed)

•Robert Grosseteste (c.1175–1253) – empirical method

•Roger Bacon, ofm (c.1214–1294)

•Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)


Aquinas (1225-1274)

no ‘two truths ‘

Jean Calvin (1509 – 1564) - we see both approaches

a) earth is no more than 6000 years old (e.g. Institutes 1.14.1).

-- creation days are normal days. (Commentary on Gen. 1:5),

-- creation accomplished in six days, not in one moment (e.g. Institutes1.14.2) “God creating the world in six days, resting on the seventh, manifests His works and creates a model for us to imitate” (Commentary on Fourth commandment – Ex. 20:8)

-- criticizes those who seek to “reconcile the doctrine of Scriptures with the dogmas of philosophy” to “avoid teaching anything which the majority of mankind might deem absurd.” (Institutes 2.2.4)


Jean Calvin

b) “Nothing is here [i.e., in Genesis] treated of but the visible form of the world. He who would learn astronomy and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere.” (Comm on Genesis 1:6)

“Undoubtedly were one to attempt to speak in due terms of the inestimable wisdom, power, justice, and goodness of God, in the formation of the world, no grace or splendor of diction could equal the greatness of the subject. Still, … while we contemplate the immense treasures of wisdom and goodness exhibited in the creatures as in so many mirrors, we may not only run our eye over them with a hasty, and, as it were, evanescent glance, but dwell long upon them, seriously and faithfully turn them in our minds, and every now and then bring them to recollection. But as the present work is of a didactic nature, we cannot fittingly enter on topics which require lengthened discourse." [Institutes, Book I, ch. XIV, S. 21]


Some would say Christianity made modern science possible, but sometimes a troubled relationship

Galileo (1564–1642) See: The Crime of Galileo: Indictment and Abjuration of 1633 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1630galileo.asp

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) - On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859)

•"I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. – I think that generally ... an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind.“ (1879)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1630galileo.asp

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1630galileo.asp


Bl. J.H. Newman (1801 –1890)

It does not seem to me to follow that creation is denied because the Creator, millions of years ago, gave laws to matter. He first created matter and then he created laws for it — laws which should construct it into its present wonderful beauty, and accurate adjustment and harmony of parts gradually. We do not deny or circumscribe the Creator, because we hold he has created the self acting ,originating human mind, which has almost a creative gift; much less then do we deny or circumscribe His power, if we hold that He gave matter such laws as by their blind instrumentality moulded and constructed through innumerable ages the world as we see it. If Mr Darwin in this or that point of his theory comes into collision with revealed truth, that is another matter — but I do not see that the principle of development, or what I have called construction, does. As to the Divine Design, is it not an instance of incomprehensibly and infinitely marvellous Wisdom and Design to have given certain laws to matter millions of ages ago, which have surely and precisely worked out, in the long course of those ages, those effects which He from the first proposed. Mr Darwin's theory need not then to be atheistical, be it true or not; it may simply be suggesting a larger idea of Divine Prescience and Skill.”

-- John Henry Newman to J. Walker of Scarborough, May 22, 1868 / http://www.disf.org/en/documentation/Newman_Walker_eng.asp


Tennessee's “Butler Act,” 1925 (1926 Mississippi; 1928 Arkansas)

“That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”

Similarly

“unlawful for any teacher or other instructor in any university, college, normal, public school or other institution of the state which is supported in whole or in part from public funds derived by state or local taxation to teach the theory or doctrine that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animals, and also that it be unlawful for any teacher, textbook commission, or other authority exercising the power to select textbooks for above-mentioned institutions to adopt or use in any such institution a textbook that teaches the doctrine or theory that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animal.” Arkansas

Challenged in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (1925) [repealed 1967]; Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968),


Gaudium et spes (Vatican II - 1965)

7. “new conditions have their impact on religion. On the one hand, a more critical ability to distinguish religion from a magical view of the world and from the superstitions which still circulate purifies it and exacts day by day a more personal and explicit adherence to faith. As a result many persons are achieving a more vivid sense of God. On the other hand, growing numbers of people are abandoning religion in practice. Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in the teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken.



33. Through his labors and his native endowments man has ceaselessly striven to better his life. Today, however, especially with the help of science and technology, he has extended his mastery over nearly the whole of nature and continues to do so. Thanks to increased opportunities for many kinds of social contact among nations, the human family is gradually recognizing that it comprises a single world community and is making itself so. Hence many benefits once looked for, especially from heavenly powers, man has now enterprisingly procured for himself.



36. If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things and societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values which must be gradually deciphered, put to use, and regulated by men, then it is entirely right to demand that autonomy. Such is not merely required by modern man, but harmonizes also with the will of the Creator. … Therefore if methodical investigation within every branch of learning is carried out in a genuinely scientific manner and in accord with moral norms, it never truly conflicts with faith, for earthly matters and the concerns of faith derive from the same God. Indeed whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and gives them their identity. Consequently, we cannot but deplore certain habits of mind, which are sometimes found too among Christians, which do not sufficiently attend to the rightful independence of science and which, from the arguments and controversies they spark, lead many minds to conclude that faith and science are mutually opposed….

But when God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible.

SUMMARY

The key questions: Do science and religion conflict? Are they compatible?

-Need to know: What are they? What exactly conflicts/is compatible?- What does each assert?

- Are there broader issues? (institutions, world views, politics/economics)

ORIGINS: COSMOLOGY, COSMOGONY, AND CREATION

1. Introduction / Background:

a) Why are we interested in origin stories?

b) Who/what can be a cause? How does the existence of the universe occur?

2. How does Science approach origins?

- method (naturalism)

- 3 theories

3. How does Christianity approach origins?

- Scripture

- Philosophy/theology

-Catechism

-Speculative Metaphysics

ORIGINS

Why are we interested in origin stories?

Who/what can be a cause? How does the existence of the universe occur?

What is a cause?

• What caused that (event)? – e.g., a bomb blast at an embassy

– the bomb itself (material)

– the idea that the bomber has in mind (formal)

– the bomber (efficient)

– her ideal: liberating her country (final)

ORIGINS

What is a cause?

• What caused the sculpture?

– the stone (material)

– the image / form in mind (formal)

– the sculptor (efficient)

– the goal: a beautiful object (final)

ORIGINS

How does science approach origins?

• Naturalism

a) “methodological naturalism”

naturalism is committed to a methodological principle within the context of scientific inquiry; i.e., all hypotheses and events are to be explained and tested by reference to natural causes and events. To introduce a supernatural or transcendental cause within science is to depart from naturalistic explanations.

ORIGINS

b) “metaphysical naturalism”

maintains that

(1) nature is all there is and whatever exists or happens is natural;

(2) nature (the universe or cosmos) consists only of natural elements, that is, of spatiotemporal material elements--matter and energy--and non-material elements--mind, ideas, values, logical relationships, etc.--that are either associated with the human brain or exist independently of the brain and are therefore somehow immanent in the structure of the universe;

(3) nature works by natural processes that follow natural laws, and all can, in principle, be explained and understood by science and philosophy; and

(4) the supernatural does not exist, i.e., only nature is real, therefore, supernature is non-real.

ORIGINS

c) “supernaturalism”

maintains that

there are supernatural beings (gods, goddesses, lesser deities, angels, devils, fairies, trolls, leprechauns, ghosts, wood nymphs, etc.), who ‘act’ in the world (miracles, raising from the dead, faith healing, virgin birth, life after death, communication between living and dead, communication between human and god), and who have concerns such as (sanctification, salvation, sin, immortal souls, spirits, etc.)…

“Since everyone agrees that the natural exists, it is the responsibility of the supernaturalists to demonstrate the existence of the supernatural.” [This they have not done.]

From: Steven Schafersman: "Naturalism is Today -- By History, Philosophy, and Purpose -- An Essential Part of Science".

ORIGINS

Definition of Cosmology

“is the study of the structure and changes in the present universe, while the scientific field of cosmogony is concerned with the origin of the universe. Observations about our present universe may not only allow predictions to be made about the future, but they also provide clues to events that happened long ago when ... the cosmos began. So the work of cosmologists and cosmogonists overlaps.” http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/scimodule/Cosmogony/CosmogonyPDF/CosCosmolTT.pdf

Three theories of cosmogony: steady state, big bang, bang bang bang

http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/scimodule/Cosmogony/CosmogonyPDF/CosCosmolTT.pdf

ORIGINS

1. Steady state theory

Sir James Jeans (1877-1946), in the 1920s; revised in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi; J. Narlikar

A steady-state universe has no beginning or end in time

•the universe is always expanding

•but maintaining a constant average density

•matter is continuously created to form new stars and galaxies at the same rate that old ones become unobservable as a consequence of their increasing distance and velocity of recession

•On the grand scale, the average density and arrangement of galaxies is the same.

Since the universe is unchanging throughout time, the universe needs no [complicated] explanation of its beginning.

ORIGINS

1. Criticisms of Steady state theory

- Edwin Hubble showed that the universe was expanding (general relativity theory excluded the possibility of a static universe)

-discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (in 1965) thought to be left over from the Big Bang

-quasars and radio galaxies were found only at large distances (therefore existing only in the distant past), not in closer galaxies, whereas the Steady State theory predicted that such objects would be found everywhere, including close to our own galaxy.

•the mechanism for the creation of ‘new matter’ was never found

•But ‘quasi steady state cosmology’

ORIGINS

2. The Standard Hot Big Bang Model of the Universe

•Time t = 0 (about 15 billion years ago)•Radius r = 0.Temperature T = Infinite.Density = mass per volume = Infinite.

•t = 0.01 seconds•T = 100,000,000,000 0C.Energy is mostly radiation.

•t = 2 seconds•T = 10,000,000,000 0C.Density = 100 million kg per cubic meter.Proton-antiproton and neutron-antineutron pairs begin forming.

ORIGINS

2. The Standard Hot Big Bang Model of the Universe

•t = 3 minutes•T = 1,000,000,000 0C.Protons and neutrons begin forming hydrogen and helium.

•t = 20 minutes•About 25% of the protons and neutrons in the universe are now helium.

•t = 10,000 years•T = 10,000 0C.Density = 0.000,000,000,000,000,01 kg per cubic meter.

•t = 15 billion years (now)•T = -270 0C. (This temperature from Penzias and Wilson experiment.)•Density = 10-27 kg per cubic meter.

ORIGINS

3. Bang Bang Bang Theory

a. a new string-theory-based cyclical model (Paul Steinhardt (Princeton); Neil Turok (Cambridge)).

b. "eternal inflation" theory (Andrei Linde (Russian/American, Stanford) ; Alan Guth (Physics, MIT) – Guth makes the Higgs field the agent for cosmic inflation.

•Linde: “If it starts, this process can keep happening forever … It can happen now, in some part of the universe." •So, eternal inflation = a greater universe = unimaginably large, chaotic and diverse

•Linde: "Chaotic inflation allows us to explain our world without making such assumptions as the simultaneous creation of the whole universe from nothing"

ORIGINS

How does Christianity approach origins?

1. Cosmogony and Creation in Scripture :

• creation narratives

Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:3 / God creates by spoken command ("Let there be...")

Genesis 2:4–24 / Yahweh shapes the first man from dust, places him in the Garden of Eden; man names the animals; and God creates the first woman, Eve, from the man's body.

•Other creation narratives / flood stories

• ancient Near East -- Atra-Hasis epic (Babylonian/Akkadian); Canaanite

• Mesopotamia /Epic of Gilgamesh (2100 BC)

What is their purpose? (Why written? What was the intent/the message that the authors had in mind?) How was / is it read?

ORIGINS


2. “Historically”

James Ussher (1581-1656)

•A chronology: Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti ("Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world") [1650],

•Continued 1654: Annalium pars posterior, published in 1654.

•Creation starts "the entrance of the night preceding the 23rd day of October... the year before Christ 4004“ – i.e., 6 pm, 22 October 4004 BC

Is this a religious belief or a scientific belief (orboth)?

ORIGINS


2. Scripture and hermeneutics

"What is the literal sense of a passage is not always as obvious in the speeches and writings of the ancient authors of the East, as it is in the works of our own time. For what they wished to express is not to be determined by the rules of grammar and philology alone, nor solely by the context; the interpreter must, as it were, go back wholly in spirit to those remote centuries of the East and with the aid of history, archaeology, ethnology, and other sciences, accurately determine what modes of writing, so to speak, the authors of that ancient period would be likely to use, and in fact did use. For the ancient peoples of the East, in order to express their ideas, did not always employ those forms or kinds of speech which we use today; but rather those used by the men of their times and countries. What those exactly were the commentator cannot determine as it were in advance, but only after a careful examination of the ancient literature of the East"

-- Pius XII, Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, 30 September 1943

ORIGINS


a) Creation stories explain something – though not necessarily historical or scientific

i) * questions of meaning and purpose

ii) *assurance of order

iii) * indicating value – the value of nature, of human beings (in relation to other things), of animal life/the environment

iv) * to affirm / a reminder of who is responsible.

ORIGINS


"The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents" (CCC 390).

ORIGINS


Genesis 6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

Genesis 9: 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

……

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.

ORIGINS


Genesis 17

“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you,

And you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

5 “No longer shall your name be called Abram [exalted father]

But your name shall be Abraham;

For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. 7 I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for aneverlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. 8 I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

ORIGINS


The approach of philosophy / theology

The difference between Cause and creation

What does God create?

- Not just How does God create? but Why does he create?

• Not just an efficient cause but a final cause

• And usually ex nihilo [material cause]

• And God sustains

ORIGINS


Catholic Catechism

293 “The world was made for the glory of God." St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it", for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness: "Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand."136 The First Vatican Council explains:

This one, true God, of his own goodness and "almighty power", not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel "and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal. . ."137

ORIGINS


Catholic Catechism

282. Catechesis on creation is of major importance. It concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life: for it makes explicit the response of the Christian faith to the basic question that men of all times have asked themselves: “Where do we come from?” “Where are we going?” “What is our origin?” “What is our end?” “Where does everything that exists come from and where is it going?” The two questions, the first about the origin and the second about the end, are inseparable. They are decisive for the meaning and orientation of our life and actions.

283. The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers. With Solomon they can say: “It is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements… for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me” (Wis 7:17-21).

ORIGINS


Catholic Catechism

•284. The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain of the natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically, or when man appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin: is the universe governed by chance, blind fate, anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good Being called “God.” And if the world does come from God's wisdom and goodness, why is there evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible for it? Is there any liberation from it?

ORIGINS


Catholic Catechism

•287 The truth about creation is so important for all of human life that God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his People everything that is salutary to know on the subject. Beyond the natural knowledge that every man can have of the Creator, [Cf. Acts 17:24-29; Rom 1:19-20] God progressively revealed to Israel the mystery of creation. He who chose the patriarchs, who brought Israel out of Egypt, and who by choosing Israel created and formed it, this same God reveals himself as the One to whom belong all the peoples of the earth, and the whole earth itself; he is the One who alone "made heaven and earth". [Cf. Is 43:1; Pss 115:15; 124:8; 134:3]

•288 Thus the revelation of creation is inseparable from the revelation and forging of the covenant of the one God with his People. Creation is revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal witness to God's all- powerful love. [Cf. Gen 15:5; Jer 33:19-26] And so, the truth of creation is also expressed with growing vigour in the message of the prophets, the prayer of the psalms and the liturgy, and in the wisdom sayings of the Chosen People. [Cf. Is 44:24; Ps 104; Prov 8:22-31] [280, 2569]

ORIGINS


Catholic Catechism

•289 Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the first three chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint these texts may have had diverse sources. The inspired authors have placed them at the beginning of Scripture to express in their solemn language the truths of creation - its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation. Read in the light of Christ, within the unity of Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church, these texts remain the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the "beginning": creation, fall, and promise of salvation.

ORIGINS


Summary: teaching on creation is of major importance.

Why? Not because of the ‘scientific’ character of Christian teaching

•i) Important because creation is connected with purpose

•ii) Important because creation is connected with ‘meaning’

•iii) Important because creation is connected with humanity knowing God’s existence:

•iv) Important because creation is a “mystery”

•v) Important because creation is something active, it is ongoing

•vi) Important because creation is only part of a larger story

Creation is revealed as the first step towards this covenant, and is “revealed” throughout scripture – i.e., God’s activity is revealed through scripture.

ORIGINS


What is humanity’s role in origins or creation?

In scientific cosmology / cosmogeny

In Christianity

•Creation -> the first step towards covenant

•-> “revealed” throughout scripture

•Creation is good – but it was not complete when created.

ORIGINS


•302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created “in a state of journeying” (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call «divine providence» the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection…

•306 God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' co-operation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of co-operating in the accomplishment of his plan.

ORIGINS


What is that cooperation?

•307 To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it. [Cf. Gen 1:26-28] God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbours. Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers and their sufferings. [Cf. Col 1:24] They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and co-workers for his kingdom. [1 Cor 3:9; I Th 3:2; Col 4:11]

ORIGINS


Why isn’t creation perfect? Why is there evil?

310. But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world “in a state of journeying” towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection.

ORIGINS

Another approach to cosmogeny, cosmology, and creation

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881- April 10 1955)

Paleontologist and ‘philosopher / theologian’

• The Phenomenon of Man (1955; Engl tr 1959)

• Christianity and Evolution (1971)

Creation and evolution unfolding of the material cosmos towards union with God

•this is ‘directed’, and has a final cause [“convergent evolution”]

•primordial particles [geosphere] development of life [biosphere] the appearance of humanity and consciousness [“noosphere”] to what he called the Omega Point [supreme consciousness] in the future

ORIGINS

Does the Big Bang theory have any implications for Christianity (or for theism) ?

Yes – negative:

•Stephen Hawking's Grand Design (2012) > Did God Create the Universe

•‘The role played by time at the beginning of the universe, is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a grand designer – and revealing how the universe created itself.’

As we travel back in time towards the moment of the big bang… time itself must come to a stop.

You can’t get to a time before the big bang because, there was no ‘before’, the big bang.

We have finally found something that does not have a cause – because there was no ‘time’, for a cause to exist in.

•So when people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the Big Bang, so there is no time for God to make the universe in.

ORIGINS


Yes – negative:

•Stephen Hawking's Grand Design (2012) > Did God Create the Universe

•Assumptions

1. Cause temporally precedes effect

2. Creation is in time

3. Causes are physical

4. Naturalism

ORIGINS


No – neutral:

1. Cf. Aquinas on the question: Was the universe created in time?

•"That the world began to exist is an object of faith, but not of demonstration or science. And it is useful to consider this, lest anyone, presuming to demonstrate what is of faith, should bring forward reasons that are not cogent, so as to give occasion to unbelievers to laugh, thinking that on such grounds we believe things that are of faith." (Summa theologiae I.46.2)

2. The character of creation stories

ORIGINS


Yes – possibly positive:

Is the universe self-explanatory?

•Causality and Metaphysical dependence

ORIGINS: SUMMARY

Is there a contradiction? Is there support?

1. Assumptions of this

2. Catholics are at liberty to believe that creation took a few days or a much longer period, according to how they see the evidence, and subject to any future judgment of the Church (Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical Humani Generis 36–37). They need not be hostile to modern cosmology.

• BUT: there was creation ex nihilo & what there is is under the impetus and guidance of God, and their ultimate creation must be ascribed to him.

ORIGINS: SUMMARY


•"no real disagreement can exist between the theologian and the scientist provided each keeps within his own limits. . . . If nevertheless there is a disagreement . . . it should be remembered that the sacred writers, or more truly ‘the Spirit of God who spoke through them, did not wish to teach men such truths (as the inner structure of visible objects) which do not help anyone to salvation’; and that, for this reason, rather than trying to provide a scientific exposition of nature, they sometimes describe and treat these matters either in a somewhat figurative language or as the common manner of speech those times required, and indeed still requires nowadays in everyday life, even amongst most learned people" (Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus 18).

ORIGINS: SUMMARY


the view(s) of non-Catholic Christians

•no major denomination (Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, “Reformed Churches” /Calvinist/, Presbyterian) *insists* on 6 day

the views of non Christians:

•Judaism: The Rabbinical Council of America : “evolutionary theory, properly understood, is not incompatible with belief in a Divine Creator, nor with the first 2 chapters of Genesis.“

•Islam: ": Surely your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six periods of time, and He is firm in power; He throws the veil of night over the day, which it pursues incessantly; and (He created) the sun and the moon and the stars, made subservient by His command; surely His is the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Qur`an 7.54

contemporary issues in christianity and science cath 322 professor william sweet fall 2015

Documents

matters of faith

moralsfull assent of

role of science

noah flood storya noah

purpose of scripture

d flood

teaching chair role

science goals